Reflecting on his 13 years on David Jones' board, Mr Savage said the sexual harassment court case that led to the departure of former chief executive Mark McInnes was hard on everyone at David Jones but he believed the retailer handled it well.

"It put everyone in the organisation under stress," he said.

"People on the shop floor wanted to talk to me about it, customers wanted to talk about it (and) shareholders.

"I think we did the right things. The only regret I would have is that it was not able to be handled outside of the public arena, but that wasn't our choice."

On the controversial hoax takeover bid David Jones received from EB Private Equity earlier this year, Mr Savage said the retailer was highly skeptical from the start.

But when news of it leaked onto a blog David Jones had no choice but to go public.

"We were in the process of trying to get information to make an informed decision on a confidential proposal but then it all leaks on a blog and then everything changes," he said.